This past week I have been doing a lot of reflecting on my project and how I want to approach it, and what I really want from it.
The idea of High Desert came about after the reduction of Bears Ears National Monument, and all that has been happening with the North Dakota pipeline in 2015/2016 and in genal our disregard not only for climate change but also the cultures and communities that have lived on the land long before the demand for the earth's resources.
I was invited to contribute to 85for85 to help raise money to fund The Wilderness Society lawsuit to fight this administration's illegal step to reduce Bears Ears, for the first edition, and the second edition money was raised and donated to the newly opened Bears Ears Education Center in Bluff, Utah.
After that, I wanted to continue to work on projects that would highlight the land and the people within in it. The people that are reimaging how we Build on and use the land while encouraging and educating others to do the same.
A new location of interest: Paradise Valley, Arizona - The location of Arcosanti, where since the 1970s has been an arcology prototype and I feel that is very relevant and a productive environment that very much reflects the statement above. I hope to explore how this has made an impact on the area and the people that live there.
“The problem I am confronting is the present design of cities only a few stories high, stretching outward in unwieldy sprawl for miles. As a result, they literally transform the earth, turn farms into parking lots, wasting enormous amounts of time and energy transporting people, goods, & services over their expanses. My solution is urban implosion rather than explosion.” –Paolo Soleri, 1977